U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,292 - issued Mar. 6, 1979 - for "Chain Saw Adapter for Use Particularly for Trimming Hedges and Cutting Brush", Ray R. Ulrich - inventor, describes a comb-like attachment for conventional chain saws which includes a plurality of dividers for dividing hedge and brush members to be trimmed into groupings and during operation gathers the groupings into narrow cutting areas for holding and cutting by the teeth of the chain saw.
The chain saw adapter of Ulrich has not received widespread commercial acceptance seemingly for a number of reasons. The first reason is that it is difficult, time consuming and somewhat dangerous to install on a chain saw and requires the use of certain tools such as wrenches, pliers and the like. The design of the attachment is such that a narrow enclosed open pathway is provided through two legs of an attachment which are pinned together at the ends of the tines defining a comb-like structure. This design makes it difficult and somewhat hazardous to being cut by the sharp teeth of the chain saw as the attachment is being secured to (or removed from) the chain saw. Secondly, hedges and brush do not grow in nice orderly fashion as regards branch size (diameter). One can be trimming along at a good rate, then have to stop because a branch for some reason is much larger in size and will not conveniently fit in between the tines of the comb-like adapter. It then becomes necessary for the user to get out another separate tool just to take care of the larger size branches.
To overcome these disadvantages, and provide a practical heavy duty hedge, brush and brush trimmer, the present invention was devised.